Tottenham Hotspur football boss
Harry Redknapp is “confident” of clearing his name after being accused of an estimated £40,000 tax evasion.

The 62-year-old Londoner voluntarily attended Bishopsgate police station in the capital to be charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue.

Harry Redknapp arrives at Tottenham’s training ground

The move came at the end of an exhaustive 26-month police and tax inquiry into alleged corruption in English football.

Charges concern two payments, totalling 295,000 US dollars (£183,000), from former Portsmouth FC chairman Milan Mandaric to Mr Redknapp via a bank account in Monaco, allegedly evading the tax and National Insurance contributions due between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007.

Ian Burton, Mr Redknapp’s solicitor, said: “Harry has co-operated fully with investigators during the course of this inquiry and is confident of a successful outcome to these court proceedings.”

The Premier League manager will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 11, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said.

Mr Redknapp’s arrest was part of a wider inquiry, dubbed Operation Apprentice, by City of London Police and HM Revenue and Customs into alleged football corruption. He was held in November 2007 by investigators examining a number of transfer deals at his former club, Portsmouth, and at Birmingham City.

Other figures who came under the police spotlight were Birmingham City’s former managing director, Karren Brady, and former co-owner, David Sullivan. Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie, former chairman Milan Mandaric, former player Amdy Faye and agent Willie McKay were also questioned.

Mandaric, 71, now chairman of Leicester City, was charged with tax evasion on Tuesday and ordered to appear in court on February 11.

In May 2008 Redknapp and his wife Sandra launched a court challenge against his arrest and the search of their home in Sandbanks, Poole. They were awarded £1,000 damages against City of London Police after the High Court ruled a search of their home was unlawful.